I love a good spreadsheet. There are two types of people in the world. A very brave few find immense joy in the structure of a well-constructed spreadsheet. Everyone else is a mindless savage.
I recently started working on a spreadsheet to keep track of the songs that I have written. This is not my first spreadsheet devoted to songwriting. For some reason, I couldn’t find the old spreadsheets. That is okay. This is a great opportunity to work on a new spreadsheet.
For most of my songwriting career, I have written lyrics on paper with a pencil. I like a tangible medium when exploring creative ideas. I have had some brief periods in my artistic journey when I typed my lyrics. Honestly, it works almost as well as paper and pencil. There are very few drawbacks. With a phone in my pocket, it is just as accessible. It’s easier to edit. I sometimes struggle to read my writing. When a brilliant idea bursts forth and is typed, I don’t have to worry about trying to read my ridiculous chicken scratch.
I was working on the information for the songs from the Stay at Home record. It seems that I was typing everything during that phase. Despite my love of obsessive organization, I neglected to include dates with these songs. I know they were written sometime during 2020 but I can’t be any more specific than that. I guess there is a lot of weird stuff about that year. A lack of specificity, when it comes to the date of a song’s birth, is a minor blip in an otherwise strange year. I spent a fair amount of time during that year making random spreadsheets.